Capt. Tiffany Vague of Vague Rods built me an extreme multi-purpose fishing rod that was so wonderfully useful as well as artful, that it became my signature series rod. I call them Bacon Stix.
The marketing strategist for Vague Rods asked me to write the story of my aptly named signature series, for the website and other marketing uses. I had fun writing the story and want to share it with you. Whether you fish or not, it is a good story. Read on.
Capt. David Bacon ran fishing charters aboard his legendary Grady-White charterboat WaveWalker, for enough decades that fishing industry scuttlebutt questioned which came first … WaveWalker or the Ark. That question remains afloat to this day.
During those watery eons, Capt. Bacon wore out enough fishing rods to amass a massive boneyard of old rods. He grumbled at each and every one due to inadequacies and frailties, always searching for a better multi-purpose rod to fish with.
During those years, Capt. Tiffany Vague, who worked as crew on the WaveWalker and became arguably the best deckhand on the coast, mastered her rod-bulding skills and was mentored along the way by the legendary Doc Ski who is considered the ultimate rod builder.
Doc has since passed the teacher’s torch to Tiffany (watch the video on vaguerods.net).
One day Tiffany said, “Dad, you’re never happy with store-bought rods and not happy with any that have been custom wrapped for you by others. Let me build you the rod I know you need for each fishing scenario and we’ll name the line of rods Bacon Stix.”
Capt. Bacon stroked his prodigious mustache thoughtfully and agreed. Having heard more times than she cared to remember every single complaint about every single rod he had used, she knew what would solve his problems and catch more fish.
She started with a Batson Rainshadow blank, rugged componentry, and applied appealing art. The first rod in the line was a 7-foot, 20- to 50-pound rod with a tough but sensitive tip capable of visually communicating the action of a dodger and casting a bait to a kelp paddy. She even put the name Bacon Stix on the rod.
When she presented the finished product to Capt. Bacon, he looked at it, felt it, flexed it, and whistled softly. That was a good sign.
Over the course of that season, the Bacon Stix was used for white seabass, bounce-balling for halibut, drifting for thresher sharks, paddy hopping for yellowtail and dorado, tuna trolling and baiting, and deep work for monster lingasaur. (Lingcod are the only fish Capt. Bacon names after a dinosaur because they haven’t changed much since the days of the dinos.)
Tiffany went to work building versions of Bacon Stix for a variety of other fishing including boiler rock bassing for calicos, drifting for halibut, casting jigs for bonito and barracuda, baiting shallow water rockfish, and many others.
Now the line of Bacon Stix is complete and available at vaguerods.net.